80 
C. J. Rodgers —On the Coins of the Sikhs. 
[No. 1, 
Ahmad Shah a sanad making him a Maharaja. He is therefore the old¬ 
est Maharaja in the country and unlike all the rest was created such by 
a Musalman. 
The years after the departure of Ahmad Shah were times when one 
misl after another became pre-eminent. The whole of the Panjab lay at their 
mercy. Multan, Kussur, Pakpattan, Kangra were scenes of many a bloody 
fight. It was not so much then Sikh against Muhammadan, but Sikh 
against Sikh, Misl against Misl. Taimur Shah son of Ahmad Shah was 
obliged to come against Multan in person in 1778-9 A. T)., and it was 
surrendered to him by the leader of the Misl occupying it. But Sikhism 
had no more interruptions from Afghanistan during the time of Taimur 
Shah. From Delhi, too, little opposition was shown. The steady way in 
which rupees were struck in consecutive years shows that the mint towns 
were comparatively free from attack. 
Fig. 2, PI. Y, is a rupee struck at Amritsar in 1335 S. The inscrip¬ 
tions are both quite different from those on fig. 1. 
Obverse— 
Reverse— 
d!<f 
I a rc 
1 do not pretend here to give correct readings. The reverse is I think 
correct. I have four rupees of this series 1835, ’36, ’37, ’38. They enable 
me to read the mint as^ 0^*1 distinctly. The b and the dot under it are 
most marked. The reading of the obverse is far from satisfactory. The 
3rd line is not in my figure. But it is all on a coin which I have of the 
year 1836. The middle line is correct. The top line has Shah Ndnak on 
it undoubtedly. The whole may be read thus—“ The man of victory, 
obtained by the exertion ) of Guru Gobind Singh and the grace of kino- 
Nanak, struck this coin in each of the two worlds.” I must confess I am 
not satisfied with this rendering. But after years of search midst thousands 
of coins I am able to do no more with certainty. This therefore is the 
Nanak Shahi rupee. 
Fig. 3, PI. V, is a rupee also of Amritsar. But it returns to the ob¬ 
verse on fig. 1. In the reverse inscription, however, are some new features, 
first the katdr or dagger : (2) the word and (3) the word The 
full reverse is this :— 
•• * 
| Ap | CUA+.W 
